In a semiconductor manufacturing process, when supplying material gas stored in a storage tank to a deposition chamber (chamber), a concentration control apparatus that introduces carrier gas supplied from a carrier gas supply device into the storage tank, and while regulating the concentration of the material gas led out of the storage tank together with the carrier gas, supplies both of the gases to the deposition chamber (chamber) is used.
For example, as disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a conventional concentration control apparatus employs a configuration adapted to, on a panel installed above a storage tank, fix respective pipes such as a pipe extending from a carrier gas supply device to the storage tank and a pipe extending from the storage tank to a deposition chamber, as well as fix respective devices such as mass flow controllers connected to the respective pipes.
However, although the conventional concentration control apparatus has a high degree of design freedom because the respective pipes and the respective devices can be freely arranged on the panel, there are problems that the total length of the respective pipes increases, and along with the increase, the pressure drop of the entire apparatus increases and the size of the apparatus itself increases. Further, when the pipe extending from the storage tank to the deposition chamber elongates, there is also a problem of deterioration in responsiveness. Therefore, the integration of the entire apparatus exists as one of requirements.
Also, in the concentration control apparatus, a pipe connected to the lower stream side than the storage tank, through which material gas flows, is contaminated due to attachment of the material gas, and therefore it is necessary to perform regular maintenance such as replacement of pipes, so an improvement in maintainability also exists as one of the requirements.
Further, in the conventional concentration control apparatus, since the respective pipes are separated, it is necessary to install a heater for each of the pipes. However, when attempting to integrate the entire apparatus in order to respond to the requirements, the respective pipes are closely packed, and along with this, there is a problem of being unable to install a heater for a pipe requiring heating.